The Walls of The City
by L.Hawk
Summary: AU. In which Dean and Sam's search for their mother's killer snowballs into an ancient prophecy of war by an absentee ruler, involving Sam and Dean, a way around that prophecy, arranged marriage, civil war, and Dean's husband becoming a all-powerful lunatic, then unleashing an ancient evil that can only be defeated with soap. Among other things. As told to their little cousin Garth
1. Prologue

A/N- this is the very beginning of an idea that won't leave me alone. It will alternate between Dean's narration and "interludes" which will be detailed Scene descriptions, and internal monologues.

Dean sat across from Garth, scratching absent-mindedly at the glowing circle on his right forearm that marked him as Castiel's husband. Garth looked overly serious, quill poised over a large journal. He was wearing his late uncle's hat, which Dean had given him a lot of flak for wearing at first, but had grown to accept. "Come on," said Garth, showing an earnestness that would seem out of place, if one only considered how happy go lucky he was the majority of the time. "Your story needs to be written down, for posterity's sake."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Which story? The one where I save the city using nothing but soap? Or the one where I fail to stop my brother from being kidnapped as a sex slave by the king of the Demon Kingdom? Or the one where my father dies bringing me back from the dead, so I can kill the bastard who killed him and our mother and Sam's wife? Or the one where I take sides in a civil war and my husband becomes an all-powerful lunatic with delusions of godhood and goes on a killing spree? I have a hundred stories."

Garth tapped his quill on the parchment. "The way I see it, it's all one story, one part leading to the next. So why don't you tell it all, from the beginning."

Dean thought for a minute. "Well, I guess things got interesting when my Dad went missing. He found a lead on Azazel and said he'd be back in three days. On the fourth day, I started asking around, and on the fifth day, I knew what I had to do, so I got Impala out of the stables and rode her down to the Moore complex where Sammy was, and…"

"Hang on a minute," said Garth. "That's not the beginning. Start with your parents, go from there." He set his quill at the top of the page expectantly.

Dean leaned back and put his feet up on the desk. "Right. My parents were John and Mary Winchester. She a Campbell by birth, so she was raised a hunter, and the Winchester's kept the Ancient Library of Arcane Lore and History, so their families worked together a bunch, but they didn't like each other, so Her father was all upset when she said she had her eye on one of them for marrying, because she was the youngest and there wasn't much alliance crap that needed working. Anyway, she talked Grandpa Campbell into it, but he refused to let John become a Campbell, so she had to suck it up and become a Winchester, and move into the library with his family. So then I was born, and then a couple of years later, my brother Sam was born, and she named us after her parents, even though we were Winchesters, and then…She died. Azazel killed her, plain and simple. So then my dad became obsessed with finding this guy, and he taught himself how to hunt via the old lore-books, and taught us all sorts of old fighting styles and taught us to work with different weapons, and left his family home to go out hunting all the time, half the time dragging us with him to the Lands-Between, and half the time leaving us with Uncle Bobby, who had married one of his sister, been widowed, and stuck around anyway, but you knew that, cause he was your Uncle Bobby too."

Garth didn't take his eyes off the parchment, where he was frantically scribbling down every word Dean said, "True that, but this is for posterity, so you can't just leave out the bits I already know about."

Dean sighed. "Well, anyway, we grew up, and Sam was sick of everything, so he got into this huge argument with Dad, then he ran off and married Jessica Moore, and became a Moore himself so he could train as a judge under her father. Dad was pissed and refused to go to the wedding. Anyway, after that, he got his lead on Azazel, which he didn't specify about, and then rode off, and when he didn't come back, I asked around, found out what direction he was headed, and went by the Moore place to see if I couldn't talk Sammy into going with me. That enough background?"

Garth frowned. "I think so. Why don't we take a break, then you can tell me about what happened the night you went and picked your brother up."


	2. First Interlude

Interlude the first:

Bobby Winchester, nè Singer, glanced sideways at his wife, Karen, and decided, not for the first time, that she was the most beautiful woman in the world. Of course, he owed her big time, because marrying into her family had allowed him to escape his life as a stable boy and trainer, as his asshole of a father had been, but that wasn't the only reason he loved her. She was sweet, and had laughed at him when they first met, which had been frustrating, then endearing, then beautiful. The two of them were relatively happy together, and he thanked fate every day for that. In that vein, he didn't even mind being assigned dish duty, because she was washing dishes next to him. It was a good way to spend time together without everyone calling them out on being lovebirds. Hell, the only pair with even a remotely romantic marriage were John and his wife Mary, and even they wouldn't speak to each other half the time, even though they claimed to be the love of each other's lives.

Karen as if reading his mind, turned to smirk at him. "You were thinking about me, weren't you?"

"Guilty as charged, he replied, a smile playing at his own lips. "Just remembering how lucky I am to have you." He leaned down and kissed her cheek.

She flicked a bit of soapy water at him. "Oh you are incorrigible."

He put on a mock serious face. "Well, I try hard enough."

Karen giggled, and he thought it was the most beautiful sound in the world. They stayed in compatible silence for a few minutes, then Bobby cleared his throat. Karen looked at him expectantly. "Well?"

Bobby swallowed. "I don't mean to open up and sore subjects, but just whose kid is Garth?"

Karen bit her lip, all trace of her former playful demeanor gone. "You remember what happened to my sister Henrietta and he husband last year, right?"

Bobby did remember. He had just started being on more than acquaintance terms with Karen then, and he remembered how distraught she'd been. "Of course I do. But what's that got to do with…" understanding suddenly dawned on him. "Oh, I get it. Poor kid."

Karen sighed. "Yeah. His everybody's kid now, and nobody's. He's growing to be rather peculiar, and it can't be good for him."

Bobby endeavored, right them and there, at he would get to know the boy better, and be a positive influence in his life. He might make a terrible father, he's sure of that, but he might just be able to handle being a good uncle.

A/N-The first Interlude. What Bobby's life was like before all the shirt started going down. A note on marriage in this universe: A marriage is rarely even done as a pretext for a love match, although such marriages are a romanticized ideal. Basically, the reality is, two people get together and agree that one of them is going to move into the other's family house. They can be of any combination of genders. They have sex at least once, to consummate their marriage, but after that, all bets are off, and partners rarely remain faithful. Since professions are linked to clans, one of the only ways to switch jobs is to marry into a family that practices your chosen occupation and be trained by your in-laws. Whichever partner leaves his or her family home to move in with the in-laws and learn the new trade changes his or her name. So Bobby, not wanting to follow in his father's footsteps, jumped at the chance to marry into a family of scholar (men of letters), and loving Karen was like the icing on the cake. He changed his name to Winchester and moved in with her family (Which happened to include on other married couple who were a love match: John and Mary).


	3. Chapter 1

"So," said Dean, eyeing Garth, who was holding a quill poised over his parchment, "Back to when things started to snowball. I asked around, and found out that my dad was going to use this inn out in the wastes for a staging ground, or at least that's what he was telling people, and I knew the inn, we'd stayed there a few times, so I go get Impala out of the stables, and pack her saddle bags with hunting gear. The usual stuff. And then, I go and ride her down to the Moore complex on the other side of the city. I couldn't just walk in the front door, because it was late that night…Well, I asked around the fourth day he was gone, and I guess I rode out that night to get Sam, because I got there in the middle of the night, and I went up to Sam's window, and threw a rock at it to get his attention."

"Hang on," said Garth, looking up from the parchment for a minute, "A rock? Are you some crazy lovesick fool?"

Dean shrugged. "What can I say, it was a dumb move." He quickly added, "Don't write that down." He leaned back in his chair and said, "It worked. Well, sort of. Jess, my brother's wife at the time, poked her head out of the window, and yelled down, 'Lydia's two windows over.'

"I guess she thought I was there to see her sister, who was known for being a bit of a wildcat. Anyway, I recognized her right away and I called back, 'I'm not here to see your sister. I'm here to see your husband.' That brought Sam right to the window, and he called, 'Dean, what the Hell are you doing here?'

"And I called back up, 'Dad's in trouble, get your ass down here.' And it worked, because he leaves the window and two minutes later he's coming around from the back of the compound. He came over to Impala, who's my mount. She's the best mount you ever saw; black with some silver marking's on her flank, a little on the small side, but she could carry my dad, my brother and me plus all out gear without any problem.

"Anyway, Sam stood next to her and said, 'Dean, what are talking about?'

"So I leaned down a bit and said, 'Listen, dad got a lead on the demon who killed mom. He said he'd be back yesterday, but he isn't back yet. Please Sammy, I need back up on this one.'

"And Sam kind of glanced back up at Jessica in the window, and he asked, 'can you promise me we'll be back by the day after tomorrow?'

"And I thought that was the stupidest question ever, but I figured we could be, so I told him, 'Sure,' and he blew a kiss up to Jessica or some stupid sappy shit, then he grabbed the side of Impala's saddle and hoisted himself up. Then she turned around, and we headed for the city gates."

Garth scratched his nose, getting a smear of ink on it. "So you knew where you were going?"

Dean leaned back and propped his feet up on the table. "Of course. My dad dragged us all over the place when we were kids, and I guess it just kind of stuck. We got a little bit of flack at the city gate for leaving so late, but I told them Dad was drunk and pissed, and would probably get himself killed if we didn't find him and get him back to the city soon."

"So you lied to the gatekeepers?" Garth interjected.

Dean gave a snort of laughter. "Hell, yeah. Wasn't the first time, or the last, not by a long shot. Nobody takes you being a hunter seriously if you're not a Campbell, and even they have to lie sometimes."

Dean glanced at Garth, "We got through the gates, no problem, and then it only took us a few hours to get to the inn. Our plan was to check in, get a bed, set Impala down for the night, then talk to Mrs. Harvelle in the morning and see what we could suss out about our father." Dean stood up and put his hands over his head. "I'm stiff. Give me a minute to stretch, then I'll keep going."

A/N- Short update is short, but I wanted to get another segment out quickly. Note that although the story will follow a very similar plot to the show, there will be some twists and differences. So there's that.


	4. Second Interlude

Breakfast that morning was awkward. Gwen sat near Bobby, but not next to him, and kept casting him sidelong glances and frowning. Garth sat next to Bobby and kept his head on his uncle's shoulder, food untouched. Bobby stroked the boy's head.

Gwen looked sideways at him. "We're never doing that again."

Bobby snorted in amusement, "That bad, huh?"

Gwen pressed her lips together before she said, "That wasn't my first time you know."

Bobby raised one eyebrow. "Never said it was."

"You do realize you're older than my father right?" She asked him, glancing sideways at him.

Bubby huffed. "Only by a few months."

Gwen rolls her eyes. "I'm serious though. You leave me alone in that department."

Bobby shrugged. "Sure. We still have to share a room though." He hastily added. "I don't mind camping out in the library though, as long as you let me keep my stuff in our room."

Gwen doesn't look at him. "I don't care where you sleep, but if you're in my bed, it better be just sleeping."

"Of course," said Bobby, not looking at her either.

"Plus," she added, "I get to kick you out for the night if I find a man my own age."

Bobby sighed. "Deal."

"If she kicks you out," said Garth, "You can always stay in my room. It's pretty tiny, but it's right near the library, and sharing a bed with me is better than sleeping on the floor."

Bobby smiled. "I'll keep that in mind kid."

Samuel, the patriarch of the family, walked into the room. He glanced between the couple and said, "How was your night last night?"

The looked at each other for the first time, then looked away. Bobby shrugged. "It was what it was."

Samuel sat down at the head of the table. "Look, Gwen, I'm sorry about the whole arranged marriage thing."

Gwen shrugged and looked up at her grandfather. "It's alright. We've come to an arrangement."

"Yup," Bobby agreed, also looking up at Samuel. He paused. "Thank you for letting Garth stay as well."

"We could always use someone else our age," said, Gwen's older brother Christian, who comes into the room, dragging his young wife Arlene behind him.

"What are you going to do today?" Gwen asks, and the conversation mercifully shifts away from Gwen and Bobby, and onto the topic of the new creature they're setting out to hunt.

A/N- Here's another interlude, this time just after Bobby remarries. The next interlude will explain how Karen dies in this universe.


End file.
